Poll

National

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Kevin Durant delivered the fourth quarter LeBron James never could last year.
So forget those NBA Finals jitters at the start. Durant and the young Thunder showed they have already figured out how to finish.
Durant scored 17 of his 36 points in another nightmarish final period for James and his team, leading a Thunder storm that overwhelmed the Heat and gave Oklahoma City a 105-94 victory over Miami in Game 1.
Teaming with Russell Westbrook to outscore the Heat in the second half by themselves, Durant struck first in his head-to-head matchup with James, who had seven points in the final quarter and was helpless to stop the league’s three-time scoring champion.

PARIS (AP) — Rafael Nadal was worried.
A guy so unflinching, so nearly unbeatable, while sliding and grinding and pounding his way past opponent after opponent at the French Open, got a real case of nerves during the 18 hours he and Novak Djokovic waited for the restart of their rain-interrupted final at Roland Garros.
Instead of focusing on how close he was to winning a record seventh French Open championship, Nadal grew increasingly wary of the other possible outcome: a loss in a fourth consecutive Grand Slam final against Djokovic, who was trying to become the first man since 1969 to collect four straight major titles.

CINCINNATI (AP) — A western Ohio high school runner who helped a struggling competitor finish their race is being praised for her sportsmanship and trying to cope with the attention it has sparked.
Meghan Vogel appreciates the accolades but said Tuesday that she is a bit overwhelmed by the praise that has been pouring in since Saturday’s track meet in Columbus.
The 17-year-old West Liberty-Salem High School junior was in last place in the 3,200-meter run as she caught up to Arlington High School sophomore Arden McMath, whose body was giving out. Instead of zipping past McMath to avoid the last-place finish, Vogel put McMath’s arm around her shoulders, half-dragging and half-carrying her about 30 meters to the finish line.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — After years of nagging Oklahoma City Thunder coach Scott Brooks not to take him out of games, Kevin Durant finally got his wish.
Durant had 34 points and 14 rebounds while playing all of regulation for the first time all season, and the Thunder claimed a spot in the NBA finals by beating the San Antonio Spurs 107-99 on Wednesday night.
Russell Westbrook added 25 points for the Thunder, who trailed Game 6 of the Western Conference finals by 18 in the first half and erased a 15-point halftime deficit before pulling ahead to stay in the fourth.
“It’s an amazing moment for him to play like this in this moment, in this setting, and I wasn’t going to take him out,” Brooks said.

And Miami — the team that was constructed with hopes of supplanting Boston as the power in the Eastern Conference — is suddenly in big trouble.

Kevin Garnett finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds, Paul Pierce scored 19 — including a huge 3-pointer over LeBron James' outstretched arm with 52.9 seconds left — and the Celtics beat the Heat 94-90 on Tuesday night, taking a 3-2 lead in the East finals that now shift to Boston for Game 6 on Thursday night.

DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — For those who thought Tiger Woods’ run as the world’s best golfer was over, the 747-sized roar that emanated from the 16th green at Muirfield Village likely shocked them to their senses.
With one flick of his wrists, Woods reminded everyone of who he was and what he has done.
Woods slid a 60-degree sand wedge under a ball hidden by tall grass behind the 16th green, popped the ball straight up into the air where it seemed to hang for an instant, and then watched as it rolled ever so slowly toward the cup before dropping in for a 50-foot birdie that tied him for the lead at the Memorial Tournament on Sunday.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Players testing positive for marijuana in the mighty Southeastern Conference do not face the one-year suspension that comes from getting busted by the NCAA.
In the most successful league of the BCS-era, players routinely get third, fourth and even fifth chances before they’re booted from the team; failed drug tests administered by the NCAA result in the automatic suspension.
The finding comes from an Associated Press examination of the drug policies at 11 current members of the SEC. Vanderbilt, a private institution, declined to make its rules available.
All the SEC schools the AP looked at had far more lenient drug policies than the NCAA, though the penalties varied widely.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Swept by the barefoot running craze, ultramarathoner Ryan Carter ditched his sneakers for footwear that mimics the experience of striding unshod.
The first time he tried it two years ago, he ran a third of a mile on grass. Within three weeks of switching over, he was clocking six miles on the road.
During a training run with a friend along a picturesque bike path near downtown Minneapolis, Carter suddenly stopped, unable to take another step. His right foot seared in pain.
“It was as though someone had taken a hammer and hit me with it,” he recalled.

The New Mexico State University Aggie baseball team (35-22) was selected as one of 34 at-large bids to participate in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
The Aggies are going into the Tucson Regional as a No. 2 seed. The regional will be hosted by the University of Arizona.
The Aggies are scheduled to face No. 3 seed Louisville Friday at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, Ariz. First pitch is set for 5 p.m.
Also in the double-elimination regional is fourth-seeded Missouri, which will meet top-seeded Arizona Friday night. The winners and losers of each game will play Saturday.